Bushman period,

Late Kitchen-midden period.

But it is probable that the so-called Bushman period will have to be amalgamated with one of the others.

In conclusion I would like to record the existence of considerable accumulations of mussel shells in the neighbourhood of East London, which might be mistaken for old middens, but I have been informed that they owe their existence to the Kaffirs having been compelled to use mussels in large quantities as food during the "starvation time" of 1856-7.

NOTE.

While putting together these notes I happened to see in the volume of the Anthropological Institute's Journal to which reference has already been made, figures of the hut-dwellings on Dartmoor. They at once called to mind some remains at Bethulie on the Orange river, which, although I believe they are modern, are nevertheless of some interest. My attention was attracted to them chiefly because the foundations of the huts (which were of small size) were oval in plan, and formed of two concentric rows of stones set on edge, the intervening space and interstices of the stones being filled and plastered up with sandy clay. The walls thus formed were about 18 in. in height, and 12 to 18 in. in thickness; the superstructure of all the huts had entirely disappeared; on one side of the entrance to some of them was a space about 18 in. in diameter paved with small pieces of stone set on edge; while near the huts were several heaps of ashes, in which were agates and other stones which had been used in obtaining fire; strewn about the settlement was a quantity of broken pottery, stones hollowed for corn-mills and some of the mullers used in connexion with them, and several grindstones or hones. Close by and adjoining each other were numerous small enclosures with stone walls about four feet high, in which they had kept their live-stock; they differed from ordinary kraals in being of very small size, as well as in being rectangular in plan.

VIII. ON TWO UNPUBLISHED CHRISTIAN GEM-TYPES. Communicated by the Rev. C. W. KING, M.A., Trinity College.

[November 14, 1881.]

So limited is the variety of gem-types emanating from early Christianity (a circumstance due first to the Judaical prejudices of the primitive converts, and afterwards to the almost total decay of the art coincident with the triumph of our religion) that the discovery of anything novel among such relics will be received with equal pleasure and surprise by the student of Christian antiquities. "Those that cut and carve seals" are reckoned amongst the trades "without which a city cannot be inhabited" (i.e. necessarily to be found in every inhabited town) by the author of Ecclesiasticus', most probably a resident at Alexandria; and that great emporium continued down to the Arabian conquest the last home of the expiring glyptic art, and the source (as I have noticed on previous occasions3) whence memorials of the kind are still furnished to collectors. From that quarter also were recently (1881) brought the two gems to be described in this communication; which were soon afterwards added by that zealous amateur, the Rev. S. S. Lewis, to his already extensive and curious series of similar memorials of the early Church. Their types, besides their novelty (for

1 Ecclus. xxxviii. 27.

* See No. I. of the present volume of Communications.

nothing resembling them can be found amongst the specimens of the same class hitherto published), have other claims to our attention; the one, in the unusual elegance of the design and in the perfection of its workmanship; the other, in the singularity of its type, that suggests many interesting thoughts connected with its origin and intention, which it is the object of the following remarks to trace out and illustrate.

I.

The first gem (fig. 1), lapis-lazuli of the purest and brightest sort, is oval in form, with surface slightly convex. It is engraved with a woman amply draped on one knee in prayer, and holding up on high with both hands a Latin cross, at which she gazes fervently. Behind her appears a great palm-branch (or perhaps the tree of life) filling up that side of the field, and distinctly setting forth the faith of the SECUNDA, whose

The

name runs partly round in large and rudely-cut lettering. intaglio itself is carefully finished, the figure is well drawn, the drapery arranged with elegance; much attention has even been bestowed upon the head and features, the part of the composition always the first to fail in the works of the Decline. The whole work is not only an exception to the general mediocrity of its class, but would not disgrace an artist of a much better period than that of the Lower Empire. According to the almost invariable rule in the case of signets, the inscribed name can only designate the owner: otherwise we

should be tempted to see in the lady some virgin-martyr of the first ages, whose portrait was chosen for her seal-device by some later devotee claiming her for patron-saint. Secunda was so common a name in antiquity, by reason of the good omen it contained, that it would be rash to assign it to a daughter of the Secundus, brother-in-law of the emperor Anastasius, and Consul A.D. 511; to whose exalted rank the extraordinary beauty and the high value of the sapphirus might tempt the enthusiastic collector to assign its first ownership'.

But the peculiarity of this gem which most demands consideration, is the cross so conspicuously elevated in the hands of the kneeling damsel. This can be explained in very different ways. Does she hold it up merely as a badge of her religion; or have we here a very early instance of the "Adoration of the Cross" itself? As a visible proclamation of the faith of the bearer, the 'sign of the Cross' may be traced back to the first days of Roman Christianity; of which fact no more convincing proof can be adduced than the action of Constantine upon the conquest of Rome. In the words of Eusebius, "By a great inscription, and by monuments, he proclaimed unto all men that this is the sign of salvation: having in the centre of the imperial city set up this as a grand trophy over his enemies; engraving in indelible characters this sign of salvation, a protection for the supremacy of the Romans, and for the whole empire. For he at once commanded them to place a tall spear, in the shape of a cross in the hand of his own likeness, erected as a statue in the most public place of Rome; and to engrave beneath it this inscription in the language of the

1 Epiphanius says of the Sapphirus, there are several kinds, as the "Royal," spotted with gold; but that sort is not so much esteemed as the pure blue (On the Twelve Gems of the Rationale, chap. v.). The signet of the Emperor Phocas is cut in lapis-lazuli.

2 Vita Constantini, cap. XL.

Romans: Through this saving sign, the true test of Virtue, I have delivered your city, and rescued it from the yoke of tyrants; and moreover I have liberated, and restored the Senate and people of Rome to their pristine dignity and splendour."" The nature of this representation (perhaps a copy of the actual statue) is preserved upon the solidus of Valentinian III. (see fig. 5, p. 82) and upon those of many of his successors, in which the spear in the emperor's hand, transfixing the prostrate enemy, terminates above in a Latin Cross. Could we be certain that the remarkable adjunct lately discovered upon a unique denarius (fig. 2) of Gallienus (emp. 253-268 A.D.) was intended in the same sense, that capricious prince might claim the glory of having anticipated Constantine in such a manifestation.

The type of this deñarius of Gallienus is a standing figure, holding out a patera as if pouring a libation, and resting his left hand upon a tall sceptre (or hasta pura) which terminates at the top in a well-defined cross. The legend reads APOLLINI PAL(atino); in exergue SPQR. It is evident at first sight that the figure is not an Apollo, but the emperor himself in the character